Display apparatus.



W. A. FRiCKE.

DISPLAY APPARATUS.

APPLlcAmN FILED Dsc. 2. |915.

Patented Apr. 10,1%?.

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Patented Apr. 10, 1917.

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wf/@Q FFICEO WILLIAM A. FRICKE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

DISPLAY APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 10, 1917.

Application filed December 2, 1915. Serial No. 64,785.

To all whom z' may concern:

Be it known that I, IWILLIAM A. FRIGKE, citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and Sta-te of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Display Apparatus, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specilication.

My invention relates to display apparatus constituting in its preferred embodiment an improvement upon the system disclosed in my co-pending application Serial No. 25,356, filed May 3, 1915, and upon the system disclosed in the application of Fred G.

Dickerson, Serial No. 64,784, filed December 2, 1915. In my said co-pending application I have disclosed display apparatus comprising elements of vdiffering character that are arranged in sets or groups, the elements in each set being selectable to the exclusion of others in the same set and the sets themselves being selectable.

In practising my present invention I am enabled to reduce the switching equipment by employing as many sources of current as there are differing characters of display elements, all as will be fully explained by a description of the preferred embodiment of the invention shown by the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 isa diagrammatic illustration of ar display system equipped in accordance with my invention; Figs. 2, 3 and 4 are respectively plan, side and sectional views of a group of display elements as preferably arranged; Fig. 5 is a detail illustrating the manner of including a metallic pattern and the terminals engaged thereby in circuit; and Fig. 6 is another view more fully illustrating therelative dispositions of the lighting centers and the switching contacts upon a switch board.

Like parts are indicated by similar characters of reference throughout the diiferent iigures.

In Fig. 1 I have diagrammatically indicated three display centers at each of which a set or group of four display elements 1, 2, 3 and 4 is located. The display elements may be in the form of variously colored lamps, such as small incandescent lamps, the bulb of lamp 1 being (for example) colored orange; the bulb of lamp 2, white; the bulb of lamp 3, green; and the bulb of lamp 4, red; these lamps being shaded in the drawings to denote these colors. The sets or groups of display elements are desirably segregated, each set having lamps 1, 2, 3 and 4 being desirably covered by a translucentvcap or container 5, clouded glass being suitable material of which to form such cap. Each covering 5 is thus somewhat in the nature of a screen for the lamps behind it to preventmaterial shifting of the lighting center so far as may be apparent to the observer, the light `produced at each set being substantially ixedly localized by the ditfusingcover irrespective of the location of the lamp or lamps glowing within the cover. I do not wish to be limited, however, to the employment of the segregating elements. The contact board 6 carries contactterminals 7 (equal in number to the number of groups of display elements, these contacts being disposed similarly to the groups though placed much closer together) for the circuits of the display elements, each terminal 7 being individual to av groupi of differing display elements 1, 2, 3, and being connected vwithl one terminal of each of such display elements. The other terminal of each display element of eachl group is connected with a source of 'current pertaining thereto. Thus each lamp 1 has a terminal connected with a source of vcurrent 8 which is common to all lamps 1, each lamp 2 has a terminal connected with a source of current 9 which is: common to all lampsl 2, each lamp 3 has a terminal connected with a source of current 10 which is common to all lamps 3, and each'lamp 4 has a terminal connected with a source of current 11 which is common -to all lamps 4. The terminals of the generators 8, 9, 10 and 11 that are complemental to the terminals thereof which are connected with the lamps 1, 2, 3 and 4 are respectively connected with connecting devices in the form of plugs 12, 13, 14 and 15, which plugs may be used in conjunction with metallic patterns 16, 17, 18 and 19 when these patterns are laid upon the selected terminals 7. The plugs are adapted for separable engagement with the patterns by being engageable therewith as indicated in Fig. 5. Any plug 12 thus coupled with the pattern (18) that is laid upon contacts 7 will cause all orange colored lamps to glow whose contacts 7 are engaged by said pattern. Any plug 13 thus coupled with a pattern (19) that is laid upon contacts 7 will cause all white lamps to glow whose contacts 7 are engaged by this pattern. Any plug 14 thus coupled with a pattern (16) that is laid upon contacts 7 will cause all green lamps to glow whose contacts 7 are engaged by this pattern. Any plug 15 thus coupled with a pattern (17) that is laid upon contacts 7 will cause all red lamps to glow whose contacts 7 are engaged by this pattern.

It will be apparent, from the drawing and foregoing description that a pattern applied upon the contact board will cause lamps in different sets to glow, the selection of the lamps in the sets that are to glow being determined by the generator employed. 1f it should be desired to have more than one lamp in each set to glow, additional generators corresponding to the additional lamps may be connected with the employed patterns by means of the plugs individual to such generators, on which account each pattern desirably has as many plug receiving openings 20 as there are generators. If it should be desired to have differing portions of the same character displayed in different colors the pattern may be subdivided. Such a subdivided pattern is illustrated by the pattern portions 17, 18 and 19 that coperate to form the letter R. As these three pattern sections are connected in circuit, ac-

cording to the drawing, the vertical bar ofV the letter will be displayed in red, the oblique bar of the letter will be displayed in white, while the curved portion of the letter will be displayed in orange. The letter A, produced by the pattern 16, will all be displayed in green. While I desirably use metallic patterns in the operation of the system of my invention 1 do not wish to be limited to this'form of mechanism for operating selected lamps. For example, the plugs could be applied directly to the selected terminals 7 to select groups of lamps and the lamps in the selected groups which are to be displayed. Inasmuch as the contact terminals 7 are equal in number and' are similar in disposition to the groups ofr display elements the observer will have presented to his view characters conforming in configuration to -the characters dened by the employed terminals 7 whether these terminals be employed in conjunction with the patterns 16, 17, 18 and 19 or by other means. While I have herein shown and particu-V larly described the preferred embodiment of my invention I do not wish to be limited to the precise details of construction shown as changes may readily be made without. departing from the spirit of my invention, but having thus described my invention I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent the following:

rality of sets of differing display elements,V

display elements in each of said plurality of sets being similar to display elements inthe other sets; contact terminals for the sets of display elements, each set of display elements having a contact terminal common to the display elements of such set and connected with one terminal of each of these display elements; sources of current, simi lar display elements in the sets having oneV thereof which is connected with the remaining terminal of each of such similar display elements; and means for including any source of current in circuit with selected contact terminals.

f In witness whereof, 1 hereunto subscribeY my name this flth day of August, A. D,

i/VILLIAM A. FRICKE. lVitnesses:

Gr. L. CRAGG, E. L. WHITE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

